Page 43 of Slow Hands Cowboy

He could take her to the burger shack outside of town and she would still wear a dress that was going to call attention to her. A revenge dress.

She had brought some great dresses with her for the cruise, and it was fitting that she used that to her advantage now. She put on a dress that was tight and pink with a short hemline, one she probably wouldn’t have normally worn in Mustang River, but she wasn’t aiming for professionalism, she was aiming for a story.

She needed to look different. She needed to look better.

She had to look like she was having a full-on glow up as a result of Alan leaving her at the altar, and she had never been more resolved in anything in her whole life.

And she was a pretty damn resolved human being.

That guided her when it came to her makeup, and she did not go subtle.

Then she decided Anna couldn’t be the only one making statements.

She opened up her phone camera, stood in front of her full-length mirror and hit record. “Hi guys, it’s me!” She waved. “Just wanted to let you know I’m alive…Oh…and I’m going out tonight.”

Before she could overthink it, she uploaded the video to two different platforms. #Goingout #revengedress #jiltedbride #saveahorserideacowboy.

The last hashtag was probably overkill. But oh well. If they were going to do this they needed to do it, right?

She got 30,000 views in the first fifteen minutes the video was up.

With comments that showcased the exploding head emojis, fire, and ????.

But she wasn’t answering questions just yet.

By the time Walker knocked on the door of her cabin she was feeling like she was herself again.

She didn’t feel like a piece of crumpled up paper, or a ball of chewed up gum. Right now she felt like Beyoncé was back in the building.

She opened up the door, and she felt the moment that he saw her. She didn’t just experience it, it was like being hit by a freight train. And the look on his face was smoldering.

She couldn’t breathe.

She forced herself to breathe, because she didn’t need to be standing there looking like a fabulously made-up guppy.

Somehow, even though he was the one openly checking her out, she felt like she was the one that was being exposed. She didn’t like that at all.

“Making a statement?”

His voice was low and gravelly, and it made her feel like there were firecrackers being set off in the pit of her stomach. She could do without that.

She did her best to find all the inner confidence that she’d had back when she was a teenage girl, and she’d had no self-awareness and no rejection from men, at least.

Her mother’s rejection was a whole other issue, but she’d had confidence when it came to men.

She smiled. “If you have to ask, maybe it isn’t a loud enough statement.”

“It’s loud,” he said.

She felt a strange, climbing tension move through her body, and she wished that it wasn’t quite so powerful.

“You have no idea. I posted a teaser video.”

“Did you?”

“You haven’t seen it?”

“I don’t follow you.”